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Louisiana House committee approves $725 million budget for 2015 coastal plan, over protests from St. Bernard, Plaquemines

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The proposed Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion would receive $40.4 million for engineering and design work under the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority's proposed fiscal year 2015 annual plan.

A Louisiana legislative committee Monday approved $725 million for a fiscal year 2015 coastal plan that includes $477 million for constructions of levees and coastal restoration projects. The vote came over the objections of officials and fishing community representatives from St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes, who want to block state efforts to build sediment and freshwater diversions they contend will disrupt commercial and recreational fisheries.

Members of the House Transportation, Highways, and Public Works Committee voted 12-3 in favor of the plan's budget. The only members voting against the budget were Reps. Christopher Leopold, R-Belle Chasse; Barbara Norton, D-Shreveport; and Steve Pylant, R-Winnsboro. Leopold represents Plaquemines Parish and parts of Jefferson Parish and New Orleans.

The annual plan acts as the budget for the stateâs Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast, which is a $50 billion, 50-year plan for hurricane protection and coastal restoration efforts.

Included in this year's budget is $40.4 million for engineering and design of a proposed Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, $13.6 million for early planning of several other lower Mississippi River sediment diversions and $4.9 million for a project that would increase the flow of Atchafalaya River water into the Terrebonne Basin.

Money for those three projects comes from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which received it from BP and Transocean under federal criminal and civil plea agreements stemming from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and oil spill.

The diversions will be designed to take advantage of sediment-rich river water during major flood years to slowly rebuild wetlands in open water areas, and to nourish existing and new wetlands built under other projects.

But commercial fishers, including oyster harvesters and shrimpers, contend the large amount of freshwater released through the diversions will kill existing oyster beds and disrupt shrimping and other fisheries for both commercial and recreational fishers.

Speaking before the committee voted Monday, Louisiana Oyster Task Force Chairman John Tesvich said there remain serious questions about the ability of major sediment diversions to build land, and about their effects on fisheries.

Appearing with other representatives of the fishing community, he pointed out that both Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes have passed resolutions urging that diversion projects be halted until it can be shown the projects won't disrupt the commercial and recreational fishing industry, which represents $300 million a year in revenue.

He asked that the committee require the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority to remove the $40 million dedicated to the Mid-Barataria project from the plan until studies are completed on their effects. That could take another year or two.

CPRA Chairman Jerome Zeringue, however, said the studies will be completed even as the engineering work financed in the 2015 budget is being done. He pointed out that the state's Master Plan continues to rely more heavily on the wetland creation method preferred by the fishermen -- using pipelines to move sediment from the Mississippi River or elsewhere to open water locations to build wetlands without also releasing large amounts of water. About $20 billion of the master plan's 50-year money is dedicated to those projects, compared to about $4 billion for diversions.

The committee voted to forward the plan to House floor without changes.